States News Roundup

An omnibus bill that would provide California schools with about
$600 million more than Gov. George Deukmejian has proposed and would
launch new programs in student writing and teacher training has
received its first hearing in the legislature.

The Assembly Education Committee deferred for one week a vote on the
69-page bill by Senator Gary K. Hart, a Democrat from Santa Barbara who
offered a school-finance reform measure that is more sweeping than that
enacted last year.

Senator Hart said that his new legislation would restore about $300
million that the Governor did not include in second-year funding that
had been projected in the 1983 law. Governor Deukmejian, in his 1984-85
budget, proposed an additional $900 million for schools--with funds for
such reforms as a longer school year--but pared a projected 5.9 percent
cost-of-living increase to 3 percent.

The current measure by Senator Hart would boost schools'
cost-of-living increase to 5.9 percent and would appropriate nearly
$300 million in additional funds for new programs and expenditures.
They include financial incentives to school districts to strengthen
writing classes in grades 5, 6, 9, and 10, as well as funds to replace
"outdated, dilapi-dated" science equipment in high schools and to
establish training institutes for outstanding, specially recruited
teacher candidates and principals at University of California
campuses.

Marian Bergeson, a Republican member of the Assembly, suggested that
there is time for "further negotiations" on such features of Senator
Hart's bill as his proposed 5.9 percent cost-of-living increase. Ms.
Bergeson said funding decisions delayed until passage of the state
budget this summer will hamper local school administrators'
planning

Gov. Mark White of Texas announced earlier this month that the money
awarded to the state in a lawsuit against the federal government over
offshore oil and gas leases would be used to support local schools.

U.S. District Judge Robert Parker ruled recently that the state was
entitled to half of the increased value of the federal government's
offshore gas and oil leases.

With accrued interest, that state can expect to receive at least
$300 million, according to Janis Monger, a spokesman in the Governor's
office.

By law, $215 million of the total amount would go automatically to
the state Permanent School Fund, an endowment that produces interest
income used to defray pubic-school costs.

Ms. Monger said the money is being held in escrow and has earned $85
million in interest which could go directly to the schools with
legislative approval.

The money is being held by the Interior Department, according to Ms.
Monger, until federal officials decide whether they will appeal the
court's decision.

She said the state legislature will decide ultimately how the
schools are to use the money.

After hearing the recommendations of numerous national and state
commissions on education, Minnesota citizens got a chance this month to
present their views in a weeklong "Minnesota dialogue on education"
sponsored by the state education department.

Of the state's 435 school districts, 308 agreed to hold town
meetings, according to Laura Zahn, executive aide to Ruth E. Randall,
state commissioner of education. The idea for the meetings grew out of
Ms. Randall's conviction that "the people closest to the decision
should be involved in the process" of making decisions, Ms. Zahn
said.

The districts that agreed to hold the meetings were asked to have
participants hold small-group sessions and also to have an "open
microphone" period. Their recorded comments were sent to the state
education department.

The commissioner also asked principals and teachers to spend 30
minutes talking with students about the needs of schools and
education.

A preliminary report of the results of the meetings is expected by
April.

A final version that will be available to the public will
follow.

Texas education officials are seeking approval from the Internal
Revenue Service to back all public-school bond issues with the state's
$4-billion Permanent School Fund.

"The fund would be used as collateral to help raise the rating on
local bonds so that they can be issued at lower interest rates," said
Jim M. Hooks, the fund's investment officer.

Education officials have garnered wide support for using the
education fund as collateral for bonds. Last November, state voters
approved a constitutional amendment that would allow the education fund
to be used to back the bonds.

The program provides a "tax savings for people in the state," Mr.
Hooks said. "It allows districts to issue bonds at much more favorable
rates."

He added that there is "no risk to the fund" if a district defaults.
Texas districts have an excellent payment record, he said; moreover,
the money would have to be paid back immediately with interest or it
could be withheld by the state.

The state's 1,070 districts seek an average of about $400 million to
$500 million per year in bonds, but the program would allow districts
to borrow up to twice the amount that is in the fund--$8 billion,
according to Mr. Hooks.

A federal district judge last week ordered the Bridgeport, Conn., board
of education to comply with a bilingual-education plan for the Elias
Howe Elementary School. The plan calls for Spanish-speaking students to
be taught in both languages and non-Spanish-speaking children to be
taught Spanish.

In a consent decree, U.S. District Judge Ellen B. Burns directed the
board of education to implement a two-way bilingual "cluster" pilot
program in which limited-English-proficient students and
English-speaking students in grades K-4 will be taught every subject in
both English and Spanish, according to Rosaria Esperon, the plaintiff's
lawyer, who is with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education
Fund.

The suit, Puerto Rican Coalition of Connecticut Inc. v. Bridgeport
Board of Education, was filed two years ago on behalf of six students
at the Elias Howe Elementary School. The plaintiffs charged that the
school was graduating functionally illiterate students. Also named in
the suit were the principal of the elementary school, the state board
of education, and the commissioner of education.

Judge Burns cleared the way to the settlement last month by making
the litigation a class-action. She certified the six original
plaintiffs as representative of the class of children of Puerto Rican
origin who attend the elementary school and who come from homes in
which Spanish is the primary language, according to Carrie Kaas, Judge
Burns's assistant.

The bilingual-education plan is to be instituted during the 1984-85
and the 1985-86 academic years, after which the board of education will
be responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of the plan and
determining whether it should be continued, Ms. Kaas said. In addition,
Judge Burns indicated that if the plaintiffs can prove at the
termination of the two-year trial plan that the defendants have not
complied with it, they may request a new hearing.

Illinois students can correctly answer multiple-choice questions about
grammar but have trouble applying that knowledge when they write, a
report on the state's first assessment of writing has concluded.

The writing assessment was part of the state board's second annual
comprehensive analysis of student achievement.

This year, actual writing samples were added to its study of
standardized tests.

A sampling of 7,200 students from 4th, 8th, and 11th grades found
that 73 percent of the high-school juniors could write a "minimally
developed" essay, but only one-fifth of them reached the level of a
"well developed" paper.

About half of the 8th graders wrote minimally developed essays,
compared with about one-third of the fourth graders. Only 12 percent of
8th-grade students and 3 percent of fourth graders attained the top
writing level.

For the writing test, students were given 25 minutes to write a
persuasive essay on the proposition: "If we could unplug all the tv
sets in America, our children would grow up to be healthier, better
educated, and more independent human beings."

One conclusion drawn from the study was that "8th- and 11th-grade
students who reportedly watched television less that one hour per day
perform better than students who watch tv more frequently."

According to Carmen Chapman, coordinator for the project, some
surprises greeted those scoring the essays.

"We asked the students to illustrate their position and one kid took
us literally and drew a picture," Ms. Chapman said. "Another paper was
written in Korean."

Other essays, she said, contained language not usually associated
with standard English.

The essays were scored by 60 English teachers from across the state,
who underwent training before grading the papers.

A six-point scale was used to rate the essays in four categories:
focus, how well the student took a position and stuck with it; support,
how well the student backed up that position with examples and
arguments; organization; and mechanics.

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